What missing toddler Liyaqat 'Lee' Mentoor, would like now at age 7 according to a forensic anthropologist
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Liyaqat 'Lee' Mentoor. Picture: Facebook
The Lee Mentoor who stares from the poster is older, his forehead has broadened and he carries the casual smile of a school boy.
Here Liyaqat Mentoor, better known as Lee, is 7 years old, and if he looks anything like this, it means he is alive.
The law has declared Lee dead, murdered by his mother’s boyfriend, Onke Mashinini.
But Lee’s body has yet to be found and his family and the private investigator (PI) they appointed believe he might not be dead.
In the hope that someone might recognise the boy, the PI Wendy Pascoe recently approached the Italian Missing Children’s Institute, a non-profit organisation that helps law enforcement and missing children organisations around the world.
The founder of the institute, forensic anthropologist Laura Donato, compiled the age progression identikit of Lee.
"You send a photo of the mother, the father and the siblings," explains Pascoe, who has collaborated with the institute in the search for other missing South Africans. “From this she will compile an identikit of what the person will look like now. Lee's identikit is so close that he looks like his little stepbrother and she didn't even have a photograph of the stepbrother.”
Mashinini is serving a life sentence for Lee’s murder, this after the boy was reported missing on March 16, 2018. At the time Lee was 3.
Over the following days, weeks and months there were large-scale searches across the West Rand. Police used helicopters, cadaver dogs and hundreds of volunteers. But there was nothing.
The area of interest was the Roodekrans area, which was just kilometres from Mashinini’s home.
The story Mashinini told investigators was that on the day of Lee’s disappearance, he had been baby-sitting the boy. Kaylah, Lee’s mother, had gone to work.
Mashinini said he had walked with Lee to Kaylah’s mother’s house.
When they arrived at the house, Mashinini claimed two people told him that they were relatives of Lee and bundled the boy into a silver VW Polo and drove off. He insists that Lee is still alive.
At the time, Lee was wearing a grey jacket, black tracksuit pants and short black boots.
But Mashinini’s story kept changing and flecks of Lee’s blood were found on his shoes.
In 2019, Judge Daniel Mogotsi in the South Gauteng High Court, told Mashinini that he had shown no remorse throughout the trial. He sentenced him to life for premeditated murder.
Such murder convictions where no body is found are rare. The most famous was the Francis Rasuge case, where a Pretoria SAPS constable went missing in Hammanskraal in 2004. Her boyfriend, William Nkhuna, was later found guilty of her murder.
In 2012, Rasuge’s remains were dug up by building contractors at Nkhuna’s property in Temba. He had just sold the house.
So far, searches have revealed no traces of Lee, but during the investigation suspicious cellphone activity in the early morning, two days before the boy was declared missing, appeared to be a promising lead.
At 2am on March 14, a cellphone Mashinini was believed to be using was traced to the parking area of the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden.
Cellphone records then showed that he moved to an open piece of veld in Roodekrans. CCTV footage at the car park was checked but nothing was found.
Later, a SAPS K9 unit swept the area but without success.
Since Mashinini’s conviction, Pascoe has continued to work the case, hoping to discover what happened to the missing boy.
She has visited Mashinini in jail and she and her team are working new leads
Years may have passed but family are still seeking closure.
In March this year, the Mentoor family held a vigil and asked the Roodepoort community to join them to light a candle to honour Lee’s memory on the third anniversary of his disappearance.
“ Kaylah is struggling to move on. Although there was the successful arrest of Onke Mashinini, the family are still desperate for answers. As for me, I will continue the search, I will not give up on Lee,” says Pascoe.
Anyone who might know something related to the Liyaqat (Lee) Mentoor case can send information to MySAPS(App) or 08600 10111; or to the Pascoe Investigations Team at 072 649 7683/ 081 010 3888.